News

Smart buildings are increasingly making their way into the built environment, but can this make a building more sustainable? To answer this, it is important to know exactly what makes such a smart building "smart.

General contractor Alheembouw is in charge of the execution of the lot closed shell construction and environmental construction. Industrium is collaborating in this project with Architectenbureau Dugardyn, Establis, and Studiebureau Verhaeghe & Partners, within the partnership DEVI. Vanheede Environment Group is assisted by DEVI in the design of the entire site, and in execution takes the lead in coordinating the Techniques lot.

A spatial transformation of cities and villages appears to be an important step to meet the challenges of current climate change. Commissioned by the Environment Department of the Flemish Government, the Team Flemish Master Builder and the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency, Ingenium investigated the 'Climate District Mechelse Vesten' together with a multidisciplinary team.

Defense plans a large-scale renovation of barracks Bootsman-Jonsen in Ostend, one of our Navy's main training centers. The site will undergo a thorough renovation and refurbishment, to safeguard the quality of training and to make the site a lot more sustainable in one fell swoop. In this way, Defense is making its first steps toward a fossil-free barracks.

Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer (AWV) asked Ingenium to draw up an energy master plan for their technical infrastructure. This master plan proposes a concrete route to achieve the objectives of the Internal Climate Plan of the Flemish Government. In addition, AWV has specific opportunities, such as a very large possession of land and adjacent infrastructure, which makes additional actions possible.

With 4 Fonteinen, Matexi is realizing a new green urban neighborhood in Vilvoorde. The use of geothermal energy and free cooling in the residential and commercial project Waterzicht, stands out the most.

To achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050, it is important that companies also use energy sparingly. A number of instruments have been developed for this purpose, depending on the size, energy consumption, etc. of the companies. Companies can also appeal to various financial concessions. Small, medium-sized and large companies alike can take many measures to improve their energy efficiency.

In Antwerp, BlueApp is located on the Blue Gate Antwerp site. This site is the country's first water-bound business park that is circular and eco-effective. Innovation and sustainable chemistry come together here.

A new label has recently come into force to slowly but surely move buildings in Flanders towards carbon neutrality: the non-residential EPC. What exactly this means and when it will apply to you, you can find below.

Besides the 10 halls of over 7,500m² each, with 10 loading docks, the project also includes a container yard, a central office building and ample parking for trailers and cars. In addition to the size of the project, the BREEAM Excellent score that the client and construction partners wanted to achieve stands out.

Besides the university hospital, Campus Gasthuisberg includes a large number of KU Leuven buildings focused on research and teaching of the Faculty of Medicine.

The high bay warehouse covers an area of over 10,000 m2 and is 45 meters high. There is space for 75,000 pallets, which are stored and retrieved fully automatically in the racks. The construction of the warehouse is done 'in reverse': first the racking structure is erected outdoors, with modules of 10 meters high, 12 meters long and 4 meters wide in which the techniques are already pre-assembled. Only after that shelving 'meccano' is completed are the external walls and roof erected, in order to leave as little gap as possible unused.

For building permit applications as of 2023, EPB regulations (via the Energy Decree) will require a low-temperature heating system in new construction if a central heating system with water as the delivery medium is chosen. The requirement will apply to both residential and non-residential buildings. This requirement will ensure that all new construction can choose a sustainable generator (such as a heat pump) without any problems, even if one would still choose a hybrid heat pump or a gas boiler in the meantime.

As of June 30, 2025, the Flemish government requires that buildings with high electricity consumption install a minimum amount of solar panels. Given the exemplary role that the public sector represents, the purchase threshold for these buildings is set four times more stringent. The reference year for this consumption will be taken in 2021 or later if the threshold was not exceeded then.

Since Jan. 1, 2023, large new projects of 5 or more residential units or non-residential buildings may no longer connect to the natural gas grid. From 2025, no new construction projects will be allowed to connect to the gas grid, so every new building must be heated fossil-free.

2XL previously built a high-rise warehouse along N31 - Baron De Maerelaan, on the opposite side of the railroad bundle that lies between the old and new sites. The new warehouse is the same height as the existing one - 40.6 meters - but with an area of 14,250 m2 and 76,000 pallet spaces twice as large.

Does the energy bill continue to be a pain point for you, too? This is also the case for collecting cultural heritage institutions. Due to the need for collection care, these institutions cannot always apply energy-saving measures. After all, different collection items have a "preferred climate. This preferred climate ensures that collection pieces can be well preserved for future generations.

The Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum in Geel would like to eventually move to a completely fossil-free site. Ingenium investigated the operation of the existing three ATES installations on the site of approximately 55,000 m² floor space.

The VUB is building its future with the objective of providing the university's faculties and services with appropriate housing in accordance with contemporary standards. The development of mostly internationally oriented teaching requires new high-quality teaching spaces and laboratories.

Ingenium has been involved for years in the development of the SRI or Smart Readiness Indicator that indicates the readiness of a building to offer smart services. An unofficial test phase is currently underway in Belgium under the direction of the WTCB. This involves applying the SRI to actual buildings. The results of that test can be a trigger for governments to start the European-mandated official test phase. This is decisive in the government's choice whether or not to link the SRI to the EPC audit on a mandatory basis.

Just outside Ghent's city center, Oryx Projects is developing the Keizerpoort project, a mix of living, working and shopping. Notable are the combi buses for heating the apartments and the very extensive charging station infrastructure.

Besides the headaches of keeping the energy bill feasible in the short term, patrimony managers today are also awake to long-term questions such as, "How can we become CO2 neutral by 2050?" and "Is it still worth investing in our current buildings? Ingenium already offered answers to a government institution that had its extensive patrimony screened.

A colorful and iconic eye-catcher, that will be the HOOST project on the Maes and Boereboomplein in Knokke-Heist. Ingenium lays important sustainable accents and relieves the contractors.

The university hospital campus of Gasthuisberg was built in the late 1970s and has since been heated by a very large central boiler room of 42 MW on natural gas. This boiler room is one of the largest boiler rooms for non-industrial purposes in our country. Via an internal heat network, at a temperature of approximately 130 °C, all buildings on the UZ Leuven campus and part of the buildings of KU Leuven are heated. Given the age of this boiler room, it was time for a boiler room renovation.

The Russian-Ukrainian war is putting additional pressure on the kettle of energy transition. Our customers are also increasingly looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. The question of whether hydrogen can also play a role in their projects is becoming increasingly louder. Is hydrogen really the panacea for all applications? To get everyone moving in the same direction, Ingenium developed a strategy and vision based on various national and international sources.